


Clockwork Heart

by Alexis_Rockford



Series: Fictober 2018: 31 Fandoms in 31 Days [19]
Category: Syberia
Genre: AO3 FACEBOOK CHALLENGE, AO3 FB Challenge, AO3 Writers Facebook Group, AO3 Writers Facebook Group Monthly Challenge, Canonical Character Death, Fictober, Gen, Heartbreak, Hearts, Islands, Loneliness, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 00:59:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16336730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexis_Rockford/pseuds/Alexis_Rockford
Summary: Sometimes Kate wishes her heart was made of gears and metal...like Oscar's. Takes place between Syberia 2 and 3.This ficlet was written in response to the Fictober prompt for October 19, 2018: Dead or Dying





	Clockwork Heart

Kate Walker didn’t have to check the old man’s pulse to know he was dead. As soon as she saw him slump forward on top of the giant beast of burden he was riding, she knew. She sprinted over from the group of baby mammoths that she had been petting and approached his mount with caution. Reaching over, she gently stroked the giant pachyderm’s trunk, looking straight into its big liquid eye. The animal seemed to sense something was wrong and docilely began to kneel. Kate hurried to the side so she could slow Hans’s descent to the ground. Crouching beside his prone form, she lay him on his back and manually closed his paper-thin eyelids gently with her hand.

Although Kate was still alive, she had the fleeting thought that perhaps it would be better if her heart stopped, too. She had experienced so much loss over the past few months, and she didn’t know if she could bear any more. Her fiance and her best friend were out of her life forever, or so she hoped. After their betrayal, she couldn’t imagine reconciling with them any time soon. Besides, they existed in a previous life, a life to which she no longer felt any connection. Her mom and her old job lurked somewhere in that shadow-world as well, but she could possibly mend those relationships if she so chose. But right now, all that she cared about was right here on this mystical island that no one back home would ever believe existed.

She thought of Professor Pons, and a brief smile flashed over her wind-chapped face. He was probably the only one outside the Youkol tribe who could understand the sheer wonder of this place and the magnificent creatures who still called it home after thousands of years. Seeing this place would probably cause his scholarly heart to burst for joy. Perhaps she should stop by Barrockstadt University on her way home and instruct him on how to get here.

But where _was_ home these days? An hour ago, she would have said that this island was her new home, but now, Hans was gone, and she was alone here with only the mammoths to keep her company. The youki had run off weeks ago, presumably to rejoin its pack. And as for her charming automaton companion...

Impulsively, she reached inside the old man’s jacket and grasped the clockwork heart he had worn around his neck. _Oscar_ , she thought sadly as she gently removed it. If she could, she would salvage the rest of the parts she had cannibalized from her friend, but she knew that was impractical. Instead, she undid the clasp placed the precious keepsake on her own chest. Ignoring the whipping of the frigid arctic wind, she held the heart in her hand, imagining that she could still feel it ticking, but it had stopped as well. Her own heart seemed to slow down as she stared at it. It would be so easy to just stay out here in the cold and fade away as her friends had. But Kate was a woman of action and always had been. Just as she had throughout her entire journey, she stubbornly refused to give up.

She rose, wiping her hands on her worn winter jacket, which suddenly seemed too thin to protect her from the biting cold. Now that Hans had passed, she should probably take the ark and head back to the Youkol village. Perhaps the friendly diminutive natives who lived there would be able to help her put her life back together. She adjusted the mechanical heart on her sternum until it rested just atop her own. She willed her own organ to beat as firmly and steadily as Oscar’s had before she had disassembled him. Setting her face determinedly into the wind, she headed back toward the shore. Although the device she wore was broken, it could be mended. And perhaps someday, her own could be as well. With this hope firmly ensconced in her breast, she headed, as ever, back into the unknown.


End file.
